Zhu Qingyu (朱慶餘), also recorded as Zhu Kejiu (朱可久), was a Tang dynasty poet. His given name was Kejiu (可久) and his courtesy name Qingyu (慶餘), by which he was commonly known; his ranking name (行第) was 大, and he was also recorded as Zhu Da (朱大). He was a native of Yuezhou (modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang), though one account describes him as a man of Minzhong. His birth and death years are unknown; one record gives 797 as his birth year.
Life
He went to the capital to sit the examinations during the Changqing era and presented his poems to Zhang Ji (張籍), then vice director of the Waterways Bureau (水部員外郎); Zhang Ji admired them, kept them in his sleeve and praised them, and Zhu became known through this. In the second year of the Baoli era (826) he passed the jinshi examination and was appointed collator in the Palace Library (秘書省校書郎), later becoming assistant director of music of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices (太常寺協律郎). He travelled west to Dongting and north to the frontier, and his official career was unsuccessful.
He exchanged poems with Zhang Ji, Jia Dao, Yao He, Gu Feixiong and the monk Wuke, and also associated with Bai Juyi, Wang Jian, Linghu Chu and Jiang Fang; Yuan Zhen, Li Shen, Zhang Xiaobiao, Li Yu, Shen Chuanshi and Chen Biao are likewise recorded among his poetic contacts. Accounts of his life are found scattered in juan 46 of the Tangshi jishi (唐詩紀事) and juan 6 of the Tang caizi zhuan (唐才子傳).
Poetry
His verse is described as fresh in conception and delicate in description, close in style to that of Zhang Ji, and he excelled especially in the five-character regulated verse (五律); his "Palace Poem" (宮詞) and "Presented to the Waterways Bureau on the Eve of the Examination" (近試上張水部) were the most widely recited of his works. The Tangyin guiqian (唐音癸籤) says that he studied poetry under Zhang Ji and attained it in miniature, and the Chongding Zhongwan Tang shi zhuke tu (重訂中晚唐詩主客圖) ranked him as the foremost of Zhang Ji's disciples; the preface to the poems of Xiang Si likewise states that he alone personally received Zhang Shuibu's method. The Shi ren zhuke tu (詩人主客圖) lists him among the eight admitted disciples of Li Yi, master of the "pure, marvellous, elegant and upright" (清奇雅正) category.
The Houcun shihua (後村詩話) says that his quatrains were admired while his other works did not match them; the Zai jiu yuan shihua you bian (載酒園詩話又編) says that he could not write ancient-style verse and was skilled only in quatrains, even among recent-style forms; the Sheng'an shihua (升庵詩話) records that Wang Anshi's Baijia xuan drew heavily on his poems. The Tang caizi zhuan (唐才子傳) praises him for obtaining Zhang Shuibu's poetic method, with even mood and exquisite conception, and calls him a master craftsman of the poets' circle, famous in his own day; the Tangshi pin (唐詩品) likewise says that his writings were full of refined thought and his phrasing well attuned, and that, having personally received Zhang Shuibu's ideas, he made his name in the poetic world. The Tangshi gui zhezhong (唐詩歸折衷), citing Jingfu, says that he was appreciated by Zhang Ji (文昌) and befriended Jia Dao (閬仙), his selected lines combining Jia Dao's incisiveness with Zhang Ji's grace; the Tangshi gaishuo (唐詩概說) describes his poetic thought as clear and profound and his manner as following Wang Wei and Meng Haoran, while the Shixue yuanyuan (詩學淵源) says that he studied Du Fu and reached back to the Dali period.
Works
He is credited with one juan of poems, the Zhu Qingyu shi (朱慶餘詩), also known as the Zhu Qingyu ji (朱慶餘集); two juan of his poems are preserved in the Quan Tangshi (全唐詩).
References
- CBDB Zhu Kejiu (92533)
- 搜韵 朱慶餘 (16263)
- Wikidata Zhu Qingyu (Q11093704)